Incredibly, the photo was taken from 250 miles away, on the International Space Station, where Feustel is serving as Flight Engineer for NASA's Expedition 55 and will later serve as Commander for NASA's Expedition 56.

This is the Michigan native and racing fanatic's third trip to space, and for this particular mission, his job— along with his fellow crew-members — is to keep the ISS flying "in tip top shape" while also studying "Earth atmospherics, the effects of microgravity on bone marrow, materials’ responses to space environments, and biological samples’ responses to simulated gravity," according to NASA's mission summary.

Fortunately for motor sports fans around the world, that mission will keep Feustel on the ISS for another five months — his six-month mission launched in March — and he plans to keep the extraterrestrial photos coming.

"My intent is to shoot every track for F1, IndyCar, and MotoGP for the 2018 season," Feustel told IndyStar via email from the ISS. "I am a little worried that I set myself up for failure with the project, because the very first shot I took from space was for the first race of the F1 season in Melbourne. We flew directly overhead the track, on a clear day, within two minutes of the start of the race ... and I got a perfect shot of the track! If that is not setting the bar too high then I don’t know what is."

Feustel was kind enough to answer a few more of IndyStar's questions, including why he started taking these photos in the first place and just how far beyond point and snap he has to go to capture them.

Be on the lookout: IndyStar Motor Sports Insider Jim Ayello will be conducting a video interview with Feustel on USA Today Sports' Facebook page on May 17.

Q: How long have you been an open-wheel racing fan and why did you decide to post pictures of tracks from the space station?

A: My father participated in the Purdue University Grand Prix in 1963, and my uncle won the race in 1965. That race-winning go kart remained in the family up until a few years ago when we loaned it back to the Purdue Grand Prix Alumni Association. The point to my statement is that I grew up with that go kart. It had a 90cc McCulloch kart racing engine on the back, and it really moved.

As a kid, we would wrap the tires with studded chains and drive the kart on the ice in the winter in Michigan when others were out on ice boats. It was a blast and that is what really got me hooked. There was nothing like drifting a screaming kart on the ice at 50 mph on a clear crisp day. After that, my dad had us racing motocross at the age of 10. At 13 I was racing BMX and when I hit my 20s I was racing Enduro karts in the Midwest for about seven years. I never won the Purdue Grand Prix, but I did enjoy competing for three years. IndyCars and F1 were just a part of my life growing up. And when you grow up in Detroit, it is difficult to stray too far from motor sports.

As for the pictures, my intent was not only to provide a unique perspective of the tracks from 250 miles overhead, but more importantly to reach out to a large demographic of people that may not be aware of what is going on with NASA and human space exploration. Likewise, it is a way to expose space enthusiasts to what is going on in the world of motor sports. It is my perception that race drivers and teams share a commonality with space exploration as we know it now: There is a team of people working every weekend to put that one driver on the track with the intent of winning the race. For astronauts, there is a team of people on the ground that prepares us and our spacecraft for the journey to space with the single goal of returning us home safely – mission success. We, and the racers, could not do our jobs without the support of our teams.

Q: What goes into taking photos like these photos? Obviously, it's a bit more complicated than point and snap.

A: I’m not going to lie, its proven to be pretty difficult. As I mentioned already, I am not pulling this off alone. My colleagues at NASA have supported me with graphic indications of when I can expect to over-fly a target with precise timing. At that point it is necessary for me to float to the “good” window and point the 1120 mm lens (800 x 1.4) at the Earth and start looking for my target. This is not easy from 250 miles away. I can usually just barely catch the shape of the track through the eyepiece and the lens shows an image about 20 track diameters across. In other words, I can fit 20 tracks across the image that I see.

So you can imagine that finding a track in the middle of Europe for example can be challenging if all you have is the view in the eyepiece because the large landmarks that you can see with the naked eye from space are just gone in the eyepiece. It is not uncommon for me to fly directly overhead a track on a clear day and miss it because I cannot manage to aim the camera at the track in time before the opportunity passes. At nearly 300 miles/minute, there is not much time to get the shot, especially if you have never been there or know anything about how its location looks from 250 miles away.

Q: You've said in the past that your mission is part of NASA’s larger mission to “put humans in space, forever.” How exciting is it to be a part of something like that? Did you ever dream that’s what you’d be doing with your life?

A: It’s not that I did or didn’t dream of doing this work, it’s more like I just believed that I would. I don’t know how else to say it. The work we do is indeed exciting and I am very, very fortunate to have this opportunity, and I do not take it for granted. What people may not realize is that over 90% (97% in my case) of the job of an astronaut is spent on the ground supporting the spaceflights of others in technical and operational roles. At the end of this mission, I will have spent a total of 7 months in space over the last 18 years in the job. So it’s not all George Jetson.

As a geoscientist, I do believe that humans must learn to live off of this planet if we are to persist as a species.

A: I have been on the ISS for nearly four weeks and I believe all is going well (only about 22 weeks to go). We are here with two Russians, one Japanese and three Americans. We are all good friends, and we work hard together every day carrying out experiments for researchers on Earth. With the support of our mission control centers around the world, we keep the space station in peak operating condition.

Q: Do you have a favorite racing team? Or is there a driver or drivers whom you cheer for week to week?

A: I have many friends in the racing world on many different teams and that makes it really tough to pick a favorite in any series. Honestly if I had a T-shirt from every team I would try to wear each one on a different day…especially when they win the race!

Q: When are you going to come to an IndyCar race and take a two-seater ride with Mario Andretti?

A: Well, Mario and I are friends and I do hope that one day I will have a chance to ride with him in the 2-seater…but I want to drive :).

How cool is this... It's a photo of the IndyCar track at Long Beach taken from the International Space Station orbiting earth 250 miles above. Thanks to Astronaut @Astro_Feustel for sharing his view. I'm driving the 2-seater in one hour; let me know if you see me astronauts! https://t.co/GymL3hfxtf